Ridiculous who was knocking about the leagues in those days before the international calendar became so busy.

No doubt I've mentioned it before, but in my teens and early 20s I played in the now defunct Leeds League, which whilst not the Lancashire League or Bradford League was a chuffing good standard. Nostell CC somehow acquired Dean Jones who at the time was the current Aussie number 3 and number 1 ranked ODI batsmen in the world, they also had Tony Dodemaide for part of the season and at different points Jack Simmons & Shakoor Rana's son, Caribbean CC had Stuart Williams who went on to play 31 tests and 50+ ODI's for the Windies, his brother Harwood who played for one of the islands, and a Leeward Islands quick who thoroughly beat us up in an era when no one wore helmets.

Watching Jones bat from close in was amazing, it makes you realise (if you needed convincing) that top class sports people have an eye and timing that puts them on a different level, despite dispatching balls wherever he chose, he never seemed to put any effort into it.

League cricket is struggling as a lot of sports are - teams are shrinking in terms of the number of teams they field, or folding all together and it seems to be all the leagues, seems to be a similar story in football and rugby.

Ridiculous who was knocking about the leagues in those days before the international calendar became so busy.

No doubt I've mentioned it before, but in my teens and early 20s I played in the now defunct Leeds League, which whilst not the Lancashire League or Bradford League was a chuffing good standard. Nostell CC somehow acquired Dean Jones who at the time was the current Aussie number 3 and number 1 ranked ODI batsmen in the world, they also had Tony Dodemaide for part of the season and at different points Jack Simmons & Shakoor Rana's son, Caribbean CC had Stuart Williams who went on to play 31 tests and 50+ ODI's for the Windies, his brother Harwood who played for one of the islands, and a Leeward Islands quick who thoroughly beat us up in an era when no one wore helmets.

Watching Jones bat from close in was amazing, it makes you realise (if you needed convincing) that top class sports people have an eye and timing that puts them on a different level, despite dispatching balls wherever he chose, he never seemed to put any effort into it.

League cricket is struggling as a lot of sports are - teams are shrinking in terms of the number of teams they field, or folding all together and it seems to be all the leagues, seems to be a similar story in football and rugby.